How we fell in love with 'insanity chic'

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Tinseltown tarnished: Winona Ryder

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In court: Courtney Love

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Caught: Robert Downey Jnr after his arrest for possession of drugs

Michael Shelden

12:01AM GMT 26 Feb 2004

Even in the glory days of Hollywood, there was always scandal lurking just beneath the surface. But these days, dysfunctional behaviour is out in the open and is no obstacle to a career. No wonder so many of today's stars think they can get away with anything, says Michael Shelden

Asked his advice to young actors, Alfred Hitchcock replied in his mournful croak, "Stay out of jail." How old-fashioned. These days, a brief spell in the slammer need not be more than a minor detour on the road to stardom. In fact, it can be a great boon. After Matthew McConaughey was arrested in 1998 for disturbing the peace – he was found playing bongos in the nude and was suspected of marijuana possession – the actor's career blossomed.

To ignite their careers – or simply to flex their muscles as members of a new aristocracy of glitter – more and more stars are letting themselves go a little crazy now and then, and we seem to enjoy the spectacle. When they go too far and are put away for rehab or detox or just plain incarceration, they often find their fans waiting at the gates to welcome them back with open arms.

If you're weary of watching dysfunctional celebrity brats smirking in this lurid limelight, I'm afraid you'll just have to get used to it. According to a scathing new exposé, published earlier this week in America – Hollywood Interrupted, by journalists Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner – we're now living in an age of "insanity chic", and the protective bubble of fame is making it easier for those in the public eye to indulge in wild flights of irresponsibility.

The book is full of scandalous tales about the usual suspects – lecherous directors, champagne socialists and bright young things with dark secrets. Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jnr, Eddie Murphy and Angelina Jolie are just a few of the oddballs whose behaviour is unsparingly examined.

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But what is revealed above all else is a community that is quick to cover up scandal and accept easy excuses. Today's Hollywood celebrates its bad boys and girls and refuses to criticise the worst excesses of stars surrounded by what Breitbart – the sidekick of internet scandalmonger Matt Drudge – and Ebner describe as "an impenetrable ring of 'yes' creatures".

The result is that 21st-century Hollywood has manufactured the perfect environment in which a Michael Jackson or a Courtney Love can continually misbehave and thrive.

It was not always thus. At the height of Hollywood's glory in the 1940s and 1950s, the studio bosses and the twin guardians of gossip – Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper – held a tight leash on the stars and demanded that they keep their private lives in check. Of course, the town was always full of raging scandal just below the surface – Judy Garland, destroyed by an addiction to prescription drugs; Fatty Arbuckle, whose career in the 1920s was ruined by allegations of rape and murder – but nobody was proud of it and few dared to flaunt it. The difference now is that nearly everything is floating on the surface, and Hollywood dares you to make something of it.

In 1997, when Eddie Murphy was stopped by police for picking up a Samoan transvestite in West Hollywood, his supporters didn't blink an eye when he successfully pleaded his innocence, insisting that he was just giving an unfortunate member of society a welcome lift.

Or consider the case of foul-mouthed Courtney Love, the epitome of mad Hollywood who refuses all attempts to tame her. After she was hauled off a Virgin Atlantic flight and taken into custody for causing a major disturbance in first class, Richard Branson apologised to her, joking that his airline's new slogan could be "Rock stars swear by us". But even the indulgent Branson lost his cool and banned her from the airline when she later demanded that he sack the flight attendant who had tried to control her.

Breitbart and Ebner knew their tales of inmates running the asylum wouldn't play well in California, but they were surprised to get the cold shoulder from the big television networks in New York. This week, their appearances on two television chat shows were abruptly cancelled, and they were told that their book was too hot to handle, despite an estimated first printing of 100,000 copies.

What seems to have unnerved the media establishment is not the sordid truth, but the authors' moral outrage. "Why aren't some of these out-of-control celebrities punished more severely?" their book seems to cry out.

The short answer is that many Hollywood celebrities now think they can get away with almost anything, and it's becoming too costly and time-consuming to punish them. In the last decade, the army of lawyers and agents and publicity people protecting the stars has expanded enormously. Their job is to make any attempt to corral their clients almost impossible, and they get paid well to succeed.

The average woman who walks into a Saks Fifth Avenue and goes out again with a load of clothes she didn't pay for will face a swift – and sometimes harsh – penalty if she is caught. No one will shed a tear for her. But Winona Ryder became the Joan of Arc of shoplifting, and her lawyer put everyone else on trial before she received a slap on the wrist and the gentle admonition to mend her ways. It really wasn't worth the considerable effort to prosecute her.

Such people, one might say, need help, but what they often get is more indulgence. A favourite rehab centre of the stars is a place called Promises in Malibu, which offers luxurious digs with big-screen televisions, cosy fireplaces, sea views and gourmet food. As punishment for his various problems with drugs, Robert Downey Jnr was sentenced by a Californian court to spend a whole year in this pleasant environment. Some punishment.

When the stars try to help themselves, they often look first to their damaged souls and try to apply some spiritual balm of the weirdest kind. Hollywood is full of strange cults – from the quirky Kabbalah mystics to the Zen masters whose clients exercise on Gucci yoga mats. Ordinary churches don't have much appeal. "Christianity is for losers," Ted Turner declared when Jane Fonda left him and became a Christian.

The surprising villain in Hollywood Interrupted is not a big film star, but a very powerful television personality – Oprah Winfrey. Many sins are laid at her door for running a kind of confessional to the stars. Over the years, she has given the wayward sinners of Hollywood a chance to redeem themselves in carefully controlled performances. They get to admit to failure, ask for sympathy and promise to do better, all of which Oprah encourages and supports with a warm smile. But it rings hollow and seems to have the effect of making fans ever more tolerant of bad behaviour. The message is that you can do what you want, as long as you eventually prostrate yourself at the altar of Oprah and ask for forgiveness.

Even George W Bush has learnt that lesson. In the 2000 election, he appeared on Oprah and spoke movingly of his past failures, saying that "alcohol was beginning to compete for my affections with my wife and my family." He spoke almost tearfully of his love for his family and won the audience's heartfelt sympathy.

Some people think his appearance also helped to win him the election. When Al Gore got his chance, he refused to play the game with Oprah and was stiff and unforthcoming.

Stop the madness now, Hollywood Interrupted pleads. No more Oprah, no more confessions. Perhaps, once and for all, it's time to pull the plug on our obsession with celebrity dysfunction.

Hollywood Interrupted by Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner will be published in the UK this spring.